In early 1803, a group of events occurred almost simultaneously. These events were essential to the success of the Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery. Like many other people in the United States, President Thomas Jefferson dreamed of the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage was said to be a river route across the continent, through the western mountains, to the Pacific Ocean. Such a route would enable ships to quickly and economically reach the new trade routes established between the Pacific Northwest coast and the Orient.

With these thoughts foremost in his mind, President Jefferson asked Congress for $2,500 to outfit a small party of men to explore the Missouri River as far as the Pacific Ocean. The expedition would seek a water route through the continent and open trade relations with the Indians. It was to be a commercial venture, seeking trading partners and trade routes, as well as a scientific venture.

At this early date in 1803, it was probable that Jefferson’s proposed expedition would travel through foreign countries’ land possessions. Great Britain claimed the Pacific Northwest; Spain, the Southwest and much of the West; and France, the Louisiana Territory. Jefferson asked the ministers of these three countries for passports for an expedition made up of “An intelligent officer with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for the enterprise and willing to undertake it.”

In April, word came that France had agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million. There were approximately 820,000 square miles in the Louisiana Territory. For about three cents an acre, Jefferson doubled the size of the country.

Jefferson asked his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the proposed expedition. In turn, Lewis asked a friend, a fellow Virginian and army officer, William Clark, to share in the leadership of the adventure. Lewis wrote a long letter to Clark in June 1803. He described the expedition, and concluded his letter:

Thus my friend you have so far as leasure will at this time permit me to give it to you, a summary view of the plan . . . If therefore there is anything under those circumstances, in this enterprise, which would induce you to participate with me in it’s fatiegues, it’s dangers and it’s honors, believe me there is no man on earth with whom I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself . . .

Clark’s reply one month later was warm and enthusiastic:

The enterprise &c. is Such as I have long anticipated and am much pleased with . . . I will chearfully join you in an “official Charrector” as mentioned in your letter, and partake of the dangers, difficulties, and fatigues, and I anticipate the honors & rewards . . . My friend I do assure you that no man lives whith whome I would perfur to undertake Such a Trip &c. as your self. . . .

These two men would lead the expedition for two and a half years, along a trail almost 8,000 miles in length. The success of the Corps of Discovery was based, in part, on the respect and admiration the two men had for each other. They knew and understood each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they saw themselves as partners in the “enterprise.” They were friends.

Clark brought his slave, York, along with him. York was the only black member of the Corps of Discovery. Many of the other men were serving in the United States Army and volunteered for the journey.

Six men kept diaries of their journey: the two captains, three sergeants — Charles Floyd, Patrick Gass, and John Ordway — and one private, Joseph Whitehouse. These men wrote in their journals in the rain, the wind, and the snow, huddled around a smoking campfire, and at their leisure at Fort Mandan. They wrote after a hearty meal of venison steak and on empty stomachs. They wrote when they were ill, when they were tired and cold, and when there was “joy in camp.”

The Corps of Discovery spent their first winter together at Camp DuBois, at the confluence of the DuBois [Wood], Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Here, the two captains trained their new recruits and purchased additional supplies, including food, trade goods, and equipment for camping, medical emergencies, and mapmaking.

On May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery proceeded on, up the Missouri River. Over the next two and half years, the words, “we proceeded on” would be a familiar entry in the men’s journals.

As they followed the Missouri River through the Louisiana Territory, the Corps of Discovery met numerous Indian nations. The journal pages were filled with information about the people they met: their clothing, shelter, methods of subsistence, and customs, traditions, and beliefs.

For example, on August 13, 1805, Lewis described the traditional Shoshoni smoking ceremony:

They seated themselves in a circle around us and pulled of their mockersons before they would receive or smoke the pipe. this is a custom among them as I afterwards learned indicative of a sacred obligation of sincerity in their profession of friendship given by the act of receiving and smoking the pipe of a stranger. . . .

Clark was the expedition’s cartographer. He used a large, blank map to trace their route, and to fill in the unfamiliar spaces across the Louisiana Territory, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest. Whenever Native Americans shared their knowledge of geography with him or drew their own maps for him, Clark was careful to incorporate the information into his own maps.

The men filled their journals with descriptions of the land, the flora, and the fauna. Sergeant John Ordway described the area near the Three Forks of the Missouri River:

Some of the high knobs are covred with grass. A fiew Scattering pine trees on them. the River crooked Shallow and rapid. Some deep holes where we caught a number of Trout.

The Corps of Discovery spent their second winter [1804–1805] with the Hidatsa-speaking Indians on the Missouri River. The expedition’s carpenter, Sergeant Patrick Gass, directed the men in the construction of a triangle-shaped stockade called Fort Mandan. Here, the two captains hired Toussaint Charbonneau and his 16-year-old Agaiduka Shoshoni wife, Sacajawea, “to act as an Interpreter & interpretress for the snake Indians” in the Rocky Mountains.

In the spring of 1805, the expedition departed Fort Mandan. There were now 33 people in the Corps of Discovery — the two captains, three sergeants [Patrick Gass, John Ordway, and Nathaniel Pryor], 23 enlisted men, York, three interpreters [Drouillard, Charbonneau, and Sacajawea], the infant [Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau], and Seaman [Lewis’s dog].

From Fort Mandan, the Corps of Discovery followed the Missouri River across the northern Great Plains, using canoes and the two pirogues. With the help of the Shoshoni, Flathead, and Nez Percé Indians, the Corps of Discovery safely crossed the Rocky Mountains on foot. Horses they had purchased from the Shoshoni carried their food, clothing, medical supplies, and trade goods.

Safely across the Rocky Mountains, the Corps of Discovery camped along the Clearwater River, near several large villages of Nez Percé Indians. They branded their horses, and left them to the care of the Nez Percé until they returned the following spring. The men made five dugout canoes, and on October 7, the Corps of Discovery proceeded on, down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers toward the Pacific Ocean. Sahaptian-speaking Nez Percé, Palouse, Wanapum, and Yakima Indians guided the party through some of the most treacherous rapids on the three rivers.

On November 7, 1805, as the fog lifted at the expedition’s camp on the north shore of the Columbia River, William Clark wrote:

Great joy in camp we are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we been so long anxious to see. and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores my be heard distictly.

The Corps of Discovery chose the south side of the Columbia River for their 1805–1806 winter encampment. They built Fort Clatsop near the Netul River and several villages of Chinookan-speaking Clatsop Indians. The expedition was busy that rainy winter hunting elk, making salt, clothing, and moccasins, trading with the Chinook and Clatsop Indians, and filling their journals with descriptions of the tribes they met, and the flora and fauna they had seen. Clark completed many of his maps.

On March 23, 1806, the two captains presented the fort to the Clatsop Indians, and proceeded on, back up the Columbia River, then overland through southeastern Washington to the Nez Percé villages on the Clearwater River. On the east side of the Rocky Mountains, the Corps of Discovery separated into several small parties, some to return to the supplies cached at the Great Falls of the Missouri River, some to explore northwestern Montana, and others to explore the Yellowstone River.

On September 23, 1806, the Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery returned to St. Louis. Ordway described the day:

 . . . about 12 oCLock we arrived in Site of St. Louis fired three Rounds as we approached the Town . . . the people gathred on the Shore and Huzzared three cheers . . . the party all considerable much rejoiced that we have the Expedition Completed . . . we entend to return to our native homes to See our parents once more as we have been So long from them. — finis

After the successful return of the Corps of Discovery in 1806, the government rewarded the men for their work. In March 1807, Congress voted to give each man double pay and land grants of 320 to 1,600 acres. Only two members of the expedition were not paid for their services — York and Sacajawea.

Jefferson directed the Corps of Discovery to locate and confirm the existence of the fabled Northwest Passage. The route the Corps of Discovery followed was believed to be the “most practicable” route across the continent. It was not, and the dream of the Northwest Passage was laid to rest. The Corps brought back much information, including geology, flora and fauna, and the cultures of the Indian nations. For better or for worse, this information would direct the policies and plans of the United States for decades to come.